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We marvel at things like megahertz on our
computers or horsepower in our cars. But all it takes to get
us really excited is a dancing, bouncing man on
our computer monitor. There is joy in finding new
commands that make things pop up on the screen,
make your speaker emit a "boing" noise, or do things
a computer otherwise should not.
The computer community has a term for these tidbits lurking in your favorite pieces of software
or hardware—Easter eggs. No one is sure exactly
where they are hidden, and a special treat awaits those
who find them. Seeing them sometimes requires
knowing secret commands, other times it just takes being
in the right place at the right time.
Here are a couple of examples for those still
trying to connect the springtime celebration with
computers. A scene in the game Kings Quest II occurs
outside a cave where witches are plotting doom.
About every five times you visit the cave entrance,
the Batmobile screeches out, driving off somewhere
to fight crime (there is no further mention of
this anomaly in the game). And in Fallout II, one of
the many possible random encounters is the bridge
scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. If you
know the film, and your favorite color, you'll get a prize.
If not, you'll be confused, but otherwise not penalized.
Programmers seem to enjoy injecting a little
levity into software by hiding Easter eggs, much like
those people who volunteer to take the full Easter
basket into the backyard. One reason could be
simple artist's vanity. Dozens of programmers and
artists spend months working on a program, then a
big company gets the glory. True, programmers get
big bucks for their talents, but there is something
special about knowing something you created is enjoyed
by the masses. Inserting your name in the middle of
a game and getting it past the various
development checkpoints to full production is quite a coup.
Programmers are sometimes given venues to leave their mark. In the Fallout and Baldur's Gate
games, every headstone in cemetery scenes bears the
names and personal messages from the production
staff. This allows room for all the inside jokes they want.
Not Just Games
Gamers know Easter eggs well, since various
nuggets of joy have been showing up everywhere since the
secret "dot" in Atari 2600's Adventure. (The dot
gives access to a secret room, where the head programmer's name is written in rainbow
letters.) Eggs are so prominent in today's games that a
new term has been created—the secret
area. Some games even require, or at least strongly recommend,
visiting every secret to complete the game. Which makes
an easy sale for the "complete walk-through" booklet.
Look hard, and you'll find Easter eggs in other
applications as well. Each version of Windows has a
few treasures. And each version of Microsoft Office
has other secrets, such as a Macarena program in
Power Point 97. Other eggs are built into the dictionaries
in various versions of Word. You might be surprised
by definitions of "Bill Gates" or "Netscape."
Microsoft isn't the only company with Easter
eggs scattered through their code. In the Macintosh
version of Quark XPress, hitting three keys deletes
a box. Add the Shift key to the set, and suddenly
a Martian-looking fellow comes out holding a gun which he aims at your box. Your box lights up,
a loud sound is heard, and he and your box disappear.
Beware the Rotten Eggs
Just like the eggs in the yard, every now and
then you'll get a stinker—one that is broken or
rotten. Computer security professionals don't like
Easter eggs. By nature, they suggest something
unknown and dangerous—a piece of programming code
that behaves differently than it should. The
programming world is filled with cautionary egg-related tales
of woe. Two years ago, Maxis recalled early versions
of SimCopter because if you flew close to one area,
the computer-generated folks on the ground
suddenly lost their clothes. (To the mostly male
programmers' credit, the naked people were of both genders.)
Viruses also can lurk in eggs—one of the
earliest modern viruses contained a season's greetings
message, an unexpected Christmas tree that lit up
when the program was executed, plus a bonus virus
that devoured your valuable files behind the scenes.
Then there was the program writer who slipped an egg
into a piece of financial software, hoping for job
security. Once a month, a window popped up asking for
a code that only he knew. After his lay-off, he
warned the company that everything would crash if he
wasn't there to input the command.
Some eggs require serious effort, such as
changing your graphics settings or other permanent
modifications. So be careful. Easter eggs may be fun, but
if you screw up, think about how embarassing it will
be to explain to the tech support person, "Well, I
was just trying to make my computer dance!"
Egg-ceptional Sites
Like any secret, Easter egg knowledge is a hot commodity. Web sites abound that tell you
how and where to look for secret things in your favorite programs. Most sites also offer
varying warnings about being careful to avoid
damage to your machine, along with basic things
about not screwing up yours or other people's computers.
Here are a few egg sites:
- www.eeggs.com is the Easter Egg Archive, boasting 4,444 different eggs from
computing, books, movies, and artwork.
- www.eggheaven2000 offers a number of
eggs, along with ones from handhelds, non-PCs, or Web sites.
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